


Nine

by growingCataclysm



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Inspired By a Sleeping at Last Song, Songfic, song: nine (sleeping at last)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29894823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/growingCataclysm/pseuds/growingCataclysm
Summary: "To know and love ourselves / And others well / Is the most difficult / And meaningful work / We'll ever do"
Kudos: 7





	Nine

**Author's Note:**

> words cannot do an animation idea justice
> 
> oh well

Somewhere in the darkness, the Radiance screams her final cry. The void had been embraced, and Hallownest would dream no more. Finally, this old corpse could sleep in peace.

Somewhere, a Nailsage bows once more to his students. It is a long-awaited reunion, hatchets finally buried in the wake of love.

Somewhere, two pale corpse twine roots and limbs around one another, united once more in death, the black stain of regret slowly fading from their soul.

A trio of siblings, broken and sealed back together, meet in a town above the surface. They've all been irreparably changed, and they love one another all the more for it.

Beside an endless expanse of blue, a star-shaped nail lays driven into the path, a final reminder of a fight forever lost. At its base is a delicate, pale flower. It glows softly, bringing solace to the ghost it protects, for he is loved, always.

The Queen of Dreams and the Nightmare King meet once more at the shattered edges of their realms, merely faded memories of their former glory. Tentatively, their hands and eyes meet, carrying a mournful smile. They look up and to the future as they fade into the Essence that composed them, finally whole once more.

In a windy graveyard, an elder sleeps, at peace to see his lonely life filled with hope and laughter once more. There were no more travellers for him to meet and lose to the well, and so, curled around a pale fragment, he finally allows himself to sleep 

The last Weaver peeks out from their dark nest, and hesitantly begins their ascension to the surface. Their princess was finally moving on, and so would they.

A hunter bathed in luscious green allows his tired eyes to close, and rejoins his siblings in the land beyond, finally, beautifully loved.

The eternal lady of the City finally exits her burning, bright home. The rain falls on her face, and she feels at peace. She has outlived all of those before her, and she is satisfied.

A cartographer and his wife prepare to set out for new lands, now with three new companions by their sides. They are fractured and broken, but they are family, and they are loved.

Deep in the acidic embrace of her dream, a higher being calls her creations to finally, finally come back to sleep.

A historian carefully displays his findings, proud to share the life and death of this hallowed corpse. His work here was complete, now; he wondered how his family was doing, in their faraway home? He slung a bag over his shoulder and prepared to seek them out once more - he'd spent so long here in the past, and he was eager to rejoin the present.

Somewhere, dark and unknowable, thousands of tiny souls breathe their first and last breaths. Finally, their purpose had been fufilled. Finally, they could sleep.

Hand in hand, the last survivors of Hallownest moved on from the past, and departed onwards to the future, content in the knowledge that they will always be loved.

The stasis is lifted. With a peaceful exhale of essence, the eternal kingdom of Hallownest is allowed to finally die.

  
  



End file.
